I called Napster a "bad brand" a few days ago, but I've got to admit that there seems to be a certain magic to it. In the past couple of days I've had a lot of friends IMing and emailing me about the various ways of turning Napster's DRM'ed WMA files into other, unprotected formats.

Well, yes, you can do that. As I noted in the original post, you can use Winamp's out_lame plugin to encode to MP3. The Napster trick making the rounds uses the Output Stacker plugin (which has since been pulled from AOL-owned Winamp's website), but the principle is the same -- I haven't tried it, but I imagine Output Stacker might let you transfer ID3 information so you don't have to retag your music, but there is very little difference from the out_lame solution, technically speaking.

Thing is, this is nothing new.

i haven't written about "lost" in a while, but reading over this msnbc recap of last night's episode, i'm reminded of charles's theory:

Line of the week: As almost always, the best line belonged to Hurley. When helping Charlie bury Ethan, he responded to Charlie's "I killed Ethan, I can bury him" with "Yeah, until he rises from the dead." Seems that Hurley, like many viewers, isn't sure that such a powerful evil man can be killed with a simple gun.

a hint of zombies to come?

anyway, did anyone else watch the show last night? while it was somewhat slow-paced and light on freaky monsters, i thought it was a nice bit of character development. also, sawyer and kate are totally going to hit it.

UPDATE: i just have to give a nod to this local blog in their recap of last week's OC, mostly because i sprayed my monitor with caramel macchiato when i read them call rebecca, sandy's former love-interest-fugitive chick, "an animatronic butterbeast, like Abby Bartlet's slightly-younger but still melty sister." most excellent.

also noted: defamer's take on the much-hyped lesbian kiss that took place last week: "We’ve gotten hotter kisses from fat aunts who were pinching our cheeks until we cried. Showing her usual deep commitment to the craft of looking uncomfortable anytime a camera is pointed at her, Barton snapped her mouth closed tighter than a former child actor’s asshole when “Beat It” plays on the radio. Merely showing up for work and pressing your lips against someone else’s do not a sweeps ratings stunt make, Mischa. When you don’t deliver the tongue with the season on the line, don’t be surprised to find your character solving her identity crisis by taking a four-slice toaster with her into the jacuzzi."

Right now I'm on my... let's see... seventh fucking conference call so far this week. And I skipped my usual Tuesday night conference call! Yeesh. What's going on here? Is this some twenty-fifth birthday right of passage? I knew adulthood was going to be unrelenting toil and disappointment, but I was kind of hoping my coworkers would leave me alone during it.

Hmm. Maybe I went out and had a fatally good a time on Tuesday. Oh well. As long as the broadband connection holds I should be able to get through purgatory okay.